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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Yi-Jin-Jing (Tendon-Altering Sutra), or 易筋经 in Chinese, is a famous Kung Fu from the Shaolin Temple School of Martial Arts. It is probably one of the most famous ancient Kung Fu manuscripts thanks to Mr. Jin Yong (Louis Cha), who used the Kung Fu manuscript in the story plots in two of his well-received Wuxia (Martial Heroes) novels: Smiling Proud Wanderer, and Demi-Gods and Semi Devils. It is considered one of the two top Kung Fu skills of Shaolin alongside the Xi-Sui-Jing (Marrow-Cleansing Sutra).

Both the Tendon-Altering Sutra and the Marrow-Cleansing Sutra were said to be granted to the Shaolin Temple by Bodhidharma (达摩), the monk from ancient India and the founder of the Zen school of Buddhism in China. The two manuscripts supposedly contained breathing and meditation techniques that can turn a normal person into a top-notch Grandmaster of martial arts.

Of course Mr. Jin Yong had greatly exaggerated the power of the Tendon-Altering Sutra in his storytelling, but the manuscript was not a mere fabrication of the author and really existed. You can actually download the manuscript from the Internet. Following the exercises described in the manuscript can certainly improve one's well-being. The only problem is that the manuscript is in Chinese. So a fan of my SPW translation asked me if I could translate the manuscript into English. I thought it would be fun for all my readers to get a real sense of what the Tendon-Altering Sutra is all about, so here you go!

Note that there are many different variations of the Tendon-Altering Sutra, each slightly different from one another. I just picked one of them to translate, and the videos might show slightly different movements. I picked this set of video because the guy in the video actually explains everything in English. Besides, he is just a funny guy! Enjoy!

Stand in an upright position, keep two heels close, and slightly point toes outward like the Chinese character eight. Keep arms shoulder width, slowly raise arms forward, palms facing each other. Raise arms until they are at shoulder height, fold forearms inward so each elbow is at a 90-degree angle. Bent palms backwards while breathing in.Then slowly put palms together in a prayer position in front of your chest. Breathe out at the same time and imagine that you are directing inner energy flows from your limbs into your chest. Hold the position for one minute.

Continue from the last stance, slowly lower two arms without moving the body and gradually move arms outward. Stop briefly when your two hands reach the Dan-Tian (lower abdomen) region. Then lower your hands while moving them outward and let your hands move past the outer side of your thighs before bringing your arms upwards on the sides with palms facing down. Raise your arms until they are even with shoulder height. Raise your heels to stand on your toes. When lowering your arms, you must submerge you mind into the Dan-Tian region. When raising your arms on the side, direct the energy flow from each arm into the center of your palm. Breathe naturally and maintain a peaceful and calm mind. Hold the position for one minute.

The video below shows you how the above-translated stances are executed, demonstrated by Mr. Bruce Wen, a Shaolin monk (I couldn't verify that). It's one of the many videos on the Internet demonstrating the stances of the Tendon-Altering Sutra. It's actually slightly different from the version I translated, but this is the only one with detailed explanations in English.

Watch out for the remaining stances translated in my future blog posts.

I Googled Mr. Bruce Wen and found this very interesting video below, in which he demonstrated how to get rid of your useless yellow page phone book and spare metal bars. (Disclaim: Don't try this at home or anywhere else!) Enjoy!